"Oh Sorrow" from the Fighting and Onions album.

Oh Sorrow

"Buried Them in Water" from the Fighting and Onions album.

Buried Them in Water

"Saint Hubert" from the Saint Hubert album.

Saint Hubert

"Stop and Listen" from the Saint Hubert album.

Stop And Listen

"Dumb It Down" from the Ten Thousand album.

Dumb It Down

"Go Back Home" from the Ten Thousand album.

Go Back Home

They were a quartet. But they were not from the mountains, though Calgary was close. The music, on the other hand, was not a joke. People often mentioned whiskey, brimstone, the Mississippi Delta and the Appalachian Mountains when they talk about their music. There were few bands who conjured the intensity of the original blues and folk music pioneers while uniting roots and rock audiences. The Agnostics were one of them.

Hollering, growling, and high, lonesome keening. Duelling slide guitars, tin can banjo, frenetic finger picking, sheet metal percussion, and pounding upright bass. That was The Agnostics.

Critics dropped adjectives like ‘punk’, and made comparisons with Tom Waits, and Captain Beefheart. The band maintained that the punk spirit was born in Delta and the mountains. Beefheart and Waits knew that too.

Since the band’s first gig in 2001, word has spread from Calgary across Canada and across the Atlantic.  Dedicated cult followings emerged throughout North America and Europe; people who knew you have to dig to find the good stuff.  Despite that the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir went on hiatus in 2010, people kept discovering their music, wondering why they had missed the boat. So, in 2013, AMGC reformed.  See them while you can.

AgnosticMGC

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